The Best New Book Releases Out November 19, 2024
There is just a teensy bit of mess in Booklandia—the streets (i.e. The New York Times and ProPublica) are saying that John Grisham didn’t properly attribute criminal justice reporter Pamela Colloff for his latest book. Jamie Canavés wrote a bit about it and other mystery and thriller-related news here.
We’ve hit the time of year when there seems to be a new best-of list every week, and honestly, I’m not mad at all. This week, we’ve been treated to Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year (James by Percival Everett), TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of the Year, and Amazon’s Best Books.
Now while these lists provide great opportunities to look back at the year, we’ve still got more books coming out—some of which are by pretty heavy hitters. Discussed in more detail below, there’s new Haruki Murakami, Rebecca Yarros, and Robin Wall Kimmerer. There’s also Blues in Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, a poetry collection curated by Danez Smith; nonfiction title Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age by James Chappel; and activist essay collection Justice for Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind, edited by Julius Garvey.
And, just in time for holiday gifting season, there are celebrity memoirs: Growing Up Urkel by Jaleel White, Cher’s Cher: The Memoir, Part One, and Keke Palmer’s memoir, which I feature below.
The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel
A new Murakami is always going to make waves, and this is his first in six years. Fans of the author will find the Town here familiar. It’s where a Dream Reader reviews dreams and where shadows go on their own way. There’s love, noir, pop culture, jazz, libraries, and the intriguing otherworldliness that we’ve come to expect from Murakami.
Variation by Rebecca Yarros
If you’ve been anywhere near a fantasy book section the last year, you’ve seen Yarros’ super popular Fourth Wing series. Well, with Variation, she’s stepping away from dragons for a minute and getting into ballerinas. In this contemporary romance, elite ballerina Allie Rousseau and Coast Guard rescue swimmer Hudson Ellis get thrown back into each other’s orbits because of an injury, and Hudson’s niece shows up at Allie’s doorstep looking for her birth mother.
Side note, but it looks like ballerinas are having just a bit of a moment since Juhea Kim’s next book is the ballet world-set City of Night Birds, out November 26th.
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer, illustrator John Burgoyne
I haven’t come across anyone who’s read Braiding Sweetgrass by Kimmerer who doesn’t recommend it emphatically. Here, the Indigenous scientist considers the gift economy and how we can better position ourselves when it comes to reciprocity and community, based on lessons from nature. Which is, of course, in direct contrast to the capitalist-driven culture of scarcity we currently live in.
When Mimi Went Missing by Suja Sukumar
Mimi and Tanvi are Indian American cousins who couldn’t be any more different. Tanvi is more introverted, shy, and into nerdy things, while Mimi is seen as more assertive, more balanced, and “perfect.” Despite their differences, they’ve always gotten along—Mimi has protected Tanvi from bullies at school, even—but then Mimi starts kicking it with token mean rich girl Beth, who is Tanvi’s biggest bully. Well, Tanvi is not about to have another trash year and decides to get ahead of Mimi’s and Beth’s shenanigans by…exposing them with an incriminating picture taken at a party. While that gets a big yikes from me, the more important thing is that the day after the party, Tanvi wakes up with a bump on her noggin, scratches, and no memory. And, Mimi is missing (which you knew would happen). Tanvi, naturally, is feeling guilty in more ways than one, and starts her own little investigation. Things change, though, when the police say they’re investigating a murder…
Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative by Keke Palmer
Keke Palmer may be the queen of memes and keeping it cute, but her memoir gets real. She gets into her struggles with restarting her career after a decade, becoming a single mother, issues with boundaries, and more, all told in her singular voice. And let me just say that I know she spills in this, because the promo tour for the book has already involved revealing some behind-the-scenes Hollywood mess.
The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso
This sounds so deliciously extra. Kembral Thorne is at a party trying to turn up a little while she’s away from her newborn when things get weird. People start dying, which she can actually deal with fine since she’s an investigator, but that’s not really the worst part. There’s something that’s pushing the party down through different layers of reality—so deep that walls are bleeding and there’s a slim chance of returning to the normal plane. But there’s still a chance that Kem will survive, especially since she’s linking up with her nemesis, cat burglar Rika Nonesuch. This has adventure, reality-bending magic, macabre rituals, and some sapphic pining for good measure.
Other Book Riot New Releases Resources:
- All the Books, our weekly new book releases podcast, where Liberty and a cast of co-hosts talk about eight books out that week that we’ve read and loved.
- The New Books Newsletter, where we send you an email of the books out this week that are getting buzz.
- Finally, if you want the real inside scoop on new releases, you have to check out Book Riot’s New Release Index! That’s where I find 90% of new releases, and you can filter by trending books, Rioters’ picks, and even LGBTQ new releases!
